Jeanene Rosa Moar, 31, was charged this week with manslaughter and hiding the body of a child after her baby girl was found dead early last month in a rubbish bin between Boyd Avenue and Redwood Avenue in the city’s North End. The charges have not been tried in court and Moar is presumed innocent. The court date for Moar, scheduled for Friday, has been postponed to June 20. He remains in custody. Court records show that Moar had previous convictions for motor vehicle theft and failure to comply with its suspension. In October 2018, she pleaded guilty to driving with a disability and car theft while she was excluded from driving. Moar was sentenced to 24 days in jail and fined $ 1,000 for the offenses. The court heard that he had driven to a southern Winnipeg Liquor Mart where he stole a can of alcohol and was later found by police in the vehicle drinking in the parking lot and was taken into custody. Her lawyer then told a judge Moar was living with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and was staying at a treatment center for help with methamphetamine and alcohol addictions. The court heard that he suffered from a temporary lifestyle after being left homeless. “She did live with her mother and it was a pretty good situation growing up until she was about eight years old,” her lawyer told the court in 2018. The lawyer said Judge Moar advised him that he was subsequently exposed to abuse, neglect and harassment. “She was actually evicted from her home by her mother’s friend who was harassing her somewhat emotionally and / or sexually,” Moar’s lawyer told the court. “I would not go so far as to say that abuse took place. I do not know one way or another. “ Her lawyer told Judge Moar that she took responsibility for her actions in 2018 and wanted to focus on overcoming her addictions to work on her work skills so she could find work as a server. The worrying circumstances of the new crimes for which Moar is now accused have left many in the community shocked and saddened. Doug King, a law professor at Mount Royal University of Calgary, warns people not to rush to judge. “We need to understand that many times some women get caught up in desperate situations,” King said. “They have no support network, they feel trapped, they feel fear, they feel anxious and they make the mistake and it can be criminal.” Winnipeg police believe the baby, who police identified as Baby Moar, was still alive when they put him in the trash. It is a factor that King suggests led to the charge of homicide. “This act would be either intentional, in the sense of intentionally causing death which is murder,” King said. “Or homicide, which is not intended to cause death, but death occurred as a result of an action.” He said the charge of infanticide, which is a crime when a mother causes the death of her child while experiencing mental distress, may have been considered. Investigators would only say that the offenses for which Moar was charged were committed in consultation with the Crown. “Homicide is the right thing to do, except for infant homicide. “And if there was no evidence that the mother was suffering from a mental disorder, then negligent homicide becomes the default,” King said. He said that while these cases are extremely rare, there are ongoing initiatives across the continent to better support mothers. “To really develop, through different social service providers, what, in the absence of a better word, is a box for women who have given birth in such situations to go and put the child inside. “Basically a door to a building in an anonymous way,” King said. “We can do a lot more when it comes to situations like this where women are in a very desperate situation.”
